DHAKA: This week’s sentencing to death of Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on charges of crimes against humanity is seen by her opponents as a chance to move forward for a nation traumatized by the scale of the violent uprising that drove her from power into exile.
Hasina has been in India since Aug. 5 last year, when her 15-year rule ended during the violence that left hundreds of people dead and thousands injured. She has rejected Monday’s verdict, calling it “biased and politically motivated.”
Challenges are enormous for Bangladesh’s interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus, under pressure to hold a credible election in February after decades of rule by either Hasina or her longtime rival.
Here’s what to know.
A tense election ahead
Bangladesh’s new leaders are determined to move the South Asian nation back to democracy through the upcoming election, one they have made sure won’t include Hasina and her Awami League party. But emotions remain high.
“The interim government has fully suppressed the Awami League … So the level of polarization is at a fever pitch,” said analyst Michael Kugelman, a senior fellow with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
The biggest concern is violence involving the election, he said.
“Awami League spoilers may try to disrupt the election with unrest. And with Bangladesh’s police force dealing with serious morale issues, there would be concerns about the state’s capacity to manage the violence,” Kugelman said. Police in Bangladesh were on the frontlines of the deadly crackdown in 2024 and some in their ranks were killed after protesters attacked police stations.
Hasina’s son has warned that the party could try to block the election if the ban on its political activities is not lifted and that only an inclusive election could stabilize the country.
A ‘long game’ for Hasina
India is unlikely to extradite Hasina, despite Bangladesh’s renewed call for that following Monday’s verdict.
“Hasina will likely bide her time, continue to manage her party’s affairs from India and play a long game with the hope of a return to politics if circumstances change in the coming years,” Kugelman said. “In the region, dynastic leaders and their parties may take hits, but they never go away.”
Analyst Sabir Mustafa, former head of BBC’s Bengali Service, said that the Awami League could be seriously demoralized without Hasina’s leadership, but that the party needs to reform if it wants to move forward.
“So, Hasina needs to start the party’s reforms herself,” he said, indicating that she has to look to the future if she wants to eventually get back to politics.
Mustafa said the trial was “seriously flawed” and that a death sentence was unjust for a case held in absentia. Despite that, he said it would be a challenge to get her supporters and others out into the streets to protest anytime soon.
Mustafa said that without party reforms and new leadership under the guidance of Hasina, it would be difficult for the Awami League to make a comeback.
“That’s the kind of bullet they have to bite,” he said.
New leader under pressure
Human rights groups and the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights have expressed mixed reactions to the verdict and trial process.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International raised questions of fairness in the trial process, while the UN rights body said the verdict was “an important moment” for victims of last year’s crackdown that killed hundreds, although it remains opposed to the death penalty in all cases.
Given that, the Yunus-led administration will need to convince the international community about the credibility of the trial process.
For Kugelman, Yunus’ first priority — and his biggest challenge — is ensuring a safe and peaceful environment for the election.
These are high stakes polls: It’s the first election in nearly 20 years in Bangladesh in which there are strong expectations that the vote will be free and fair. The January 2024 election, which swept Hasina to power for a fourth consecutive term, was boycotted by opposition parties and marked by violent protests and international scrutiny.
Mustafa said Yunus has already failed his legacy as a Nobel Peace Price laureate by presiding over many violations, including blatant mob justice, custodial deaths, blanket arrests and jailing of people, some without any specific and credible charges, especially among Hasina supporters.
But he thinks the international community will continue to support the interim leader.
“The challenge before him between now and February is to ensure that things run smoothly and the elections do happen in February in a peaceful and credible manner,” Mustafa said.
He said that, given the electoral ban of the Awami League, Yunus should ensure the election is not rigged by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, or the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami.
“Thus he can revive his legacy as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.”
What former leader Sheikh Hasina’s death sentence means for Bangladesh
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What former leader Sheikh Hasina’s death sentence means for Bangladesh
- Bangladesh’s new leaders are determined to move the South Asian nation back to democracy through the upcoming election, one they have made sure won’t include Hasina and her Awami League party
What to know about the search for the Brown University shooting suspect
- The video from more than hour before the attack shows the suspect running at times in quiet residential streets near campus
PROVIDENCE, R.I.: With the Brown University shooter still on the loose Tuesday, authorities released new video of a suspect and police fanned out to Providence schools to reassure parents, kids and teachers as investigators pushed for new evidence that might help them crack the case.
Here’s a look at what to know about the attack and the search:
Search on after new video and description of suspect
Authorities released a video timeline and a slightly clearer image of the man suspected in Saturday’s attack in an engineering building classroom, where two students were killed and nine were wounded. The video from more than hour before the attack shows the suspect running at times in quiet residential streets near campus.
In videos previously made public, the suspect’s face was masked or turned away and authorities were only able to give a vague description of him as having a stocky build and about 5 feet, 8 inches (173 centimeters) tall.
The gunman fired more than 40 rounds from a 9 mm handgun, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.
Police have asked the public for tips, and said they had received about 200 by Tuesday. Col. Oscar Perez, the Providence police chief, asked the public Tuesday to look at their camera systems in the area where the person was walking to review any footage that goes back a week.
Authorities on Sunday released a different person of interest after determining he wasn’t behind the attack, which happened in a first-floor classroom where students were cramming for an exam. Providence police spokeswoman Kristy dosReis said the man’s detention didn’t affect the ongoing investigation.
Police fan out to local schools
Tensions remain high in Providence. Ten state troopers were assigned to support the local police sent to beef up security at schools, district Superintendent Javier Montañez said. The district said it canceled after-school activities, sporting events and field trips this week “out of an abundance of caution.”
The attack and the shooter’s escape also have raised questions about campus security, including a lack of security cameras, and led to calls for better locks on campus doors. But some said what they called the real issue needs to be addressed.
“The issue isn’t the doors, it’s the guns,” said Zoe Kass, a senior who fled the engineering building Saturday.
Authorities have said that one reason they lacked video of the shooter was because Brown’s older engineering building doesn’t have many cameras.
University defends response
Brown President Christina Paxson defended the university’s response, saying it was deeply committed to the safety, security and well-being of its students. She also said the campus is equipped with 1,200 cameras.
“I have been deeply saddened by people questioning that,” she said Tuesday. “As time goes on, there is a natural instinct to assign responsibility for tragic events like this. Anxiety here is very natural, but the shooter is responsible.”
Paxson said the university has two security systems. One system is activated at a time of emergency and sent out text messages, phone calls and emails that, in this shooting, reached 20,000 individuals. The other system features three sirens across campus, but Paxson said that would not be activated in an active shooter situation.
“Those get activated when there is a broad scale emergency, and we want people to rush into buildings,” she said. “In the case of an active shooter, activating that system could have caused people to rush into Barus and Holley.”
When pressed by a reporter who noted the university website says the sirens can be used when there is an active shooter, Paxson reaffirmed she didn’t think it would be used in that situation.
“It depends on the circumstances and where the active shooter would be but you don’t want to ever get people rushing into buildings that might be the site of an active shooter,” she said.
Details about the victims emerge
Two of the wounded students had been released from the hospital as of Tuesday, Brown spokeswoman Amanda McGregor said. Of the seven others, one remained in critical condition, five were in critical but stable condition and one was in stable condition, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said.
One of the wounded, 18-year-old freshman Spencer Yang of New York City, told the New York Times and the Brown Daily Herald there was a scramble after the gunman entered the room. Yang said he wound up on the ground and was shot in the leg.
The students who died were MukhammadAziz Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman from Brandermill, Virginia, and Ella Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore from a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama.
Jacob Spears, 18, a freshman from Evans, Georgia, was shot in the stomach, “but through sheer adrenaline and courage, he managed to run outside, where he was aided by others,” according to a GoFundMe site organized for him.
Durham Academy, a private K-12 school in Durham, North Carolina, confirmed that a recent graduate, Kendall Turner, was wounded.
